Top | Sandwiches
Banh Mi
(recipe, Caroline Cummins)
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Introduction
This popular Vietnamese sandwich is a complex blend of common French ingredients (baguettes, mayonnaise, and sometimes pâté) and Asian ones (chiles, cilantro, soy sauce). If you have all the ingredients on hand, they're a snap to assemble.
Ingredients
- 1 large carrot, peeled
- 1 large daikon radish (about 6 inches long and 2 inches in diameter), peeled
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- 2 tsp. sugar
- ½ tsp. salt
- 1 long, soft baguette, cut into 4 equal portions, or 4 small baguettes
- Mayonnaise
- Soy sauce
- Fish sauce (nuoc mam or nam pla) (optional)
- Liverwurst spread or soft chicken pâté (optional)
- 1 lb. roasted, grilled, or barbecued meat (beef, pork, or chicken) or tofu, or Spicy Asian Meatballs
- 2 jalapeño chiles, sliced into thin rings (optional)
- Sliced scallions for garnish (optional)
- 12 sprigs fresh cilantro
Steps
- Slice the carrot and daikon into 2-inch-long matchsticks. (Do this by hand or, more messily, in a food processor with the medium-size shredding disk.) Place the vegetables in a bowl with the rice vinegar, sugar, and salt. Marinate for at least 15 minutes, then drain. (Reserve the brine for storing leftover carrots and daikon.)
- Slice the baguettes sideways and warm them in the oven. When warm, spread one baguette half with mayonnaise and the other with sprinkled soy sauce and the optional fish sauce; repeat until all the halves are prepped. If using the liverwurst or pâté, spread it on the soy-sauced halves.
- Layer the sandwich halves with the cooked meat or tofu, the carrot-daikon pickle, the optional jalapeño rings and scallions, and the cilantro sprigs. Close the sandwiches and serve immediately.
Note
If you have a wide variety of ingredients available, lay everything out like a Southeast Asian version of the burrito bar and let diners make their own sandwiches.
Read more about banh mi sandwiches.